Is gas or electric cooking cheaper to run?

For the energy alone, gas can be cheaper per unit of heat, but piped gas carries a daily fixed charge that often outweighs the saving if gas is only used for cooking. Electric, especially induction, is efficient and uses power you already pay for.

Does the gas fixed charge matter?

Yes, a lot. If you keep piped gas just for cooking, the daily fixed charge can add up to far more than the cooking energy itself, which is why many households find electric cooking cheaper overall once that charge is counted.

What about bottled gas?

Bottled LPG avoids a daily piped charge but costs more per unit of energy. You can enter your own gas price here to compare bottled or piped gas against electric for your situation.

Gas vs Electric Cooking Calculator

This calculator works out whether it is cheaper to cook with gas or electricity in your New Zealand kitchen, once the gas fixed charge is counted. Gas often looks cheap per unit of energy, but if piped gas is only used for cooking, the daily fixed charge can become the biggest part of the bill. You enter your cooking energy use in kilowatt hours per year, your electricity price per kWh, your gas price per kWh, and the daily fixed charge for your gas connection. The calculator works out the yearly cost of cooking on electricity, the yearly cost of cooking on gas including that fixed charge, and shows the fixed charge on its own, so you can see how much of the gas total is just the standing cost of staying connected. A clear verdict tells you which option is cheaper for your household and by how much. Use it to test your own numbers from a power or gas bill rather than relying on rules of thumb, and remember the comparison works best if cooking is the main reason you keep gas; if gas also heats water or the house, that fixed charge is shared across those uses too. Prices and charges vary by retailer, plan and region, so treat the results as an indicative estimate, not an exact prediction of your bill.

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Cooking energy per year (kWh)

Electricity price (per kWh)

Gas price (per kWh)

Gas fixed charge per day

cheaper to run for cooking over a year

Electric per year$0

Gas per year$0

Gas fixed charge alone$0

If you keep piped gas only for cooking, the daily fixed charge usually dominates. If gas also runs hot water or heating, that charge is shared, so this comparison is most useful when cooking is the main gas use. Estimate only.

How it works

The calculator costs the same cooking energy two ways. For electric, it multiplies the yearly kWh by your power price. For gas, it multiplies the kWh by your gas price and adds the daily fixed charge across the year. Comparing the totals shows which is cheaper, and seeing the gas fixed charge on its own reveals how much of the gas cost is the standing charge rather than the cooking itself.

Worked example

For 600 kWh of cooking a year, electric at 28 cents is about $168. Gas at 11 cents is about $66 of energy, but a $1.60 daily fixed charge adds about $584, for roughly $650 a year. Here electric is far cheaper, because the gas standing charge dwarfs the cooking energy.

Related calculators

Electricity Cost Calculator: power costs.
Appliance Running Cost Calculator: appliance costs.
Firewood vs Heat Pump Calculator: heating costs.

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